For the national team’s journey to the World Cup qualifiers and back, the DFB chartered a plane from Lithuania. National player Almuth Schult takes a very critical view of this partnership.
The German Football Association rented a plane from the Lithuanian airline, with which the association cooperates, for the journey to and from the past World Cup qualifiers.
Almuth Schult, a national player, is critical of this partnership. She wonders “why the DFB chartered a plane from Lithuania, as it did for the European Championship,” the 30-year-old goalkeeper wrote in her column for the Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RND) with a view to the DFB team’s World Cup qualifier in Iceland last Wednesday. “From Lithuania to Iceland, from Iceland to Germany and from Germany to Lithuania. That’s more than 1500 kilometres of extra travel.”
“Is it exemplary to put the reduction of costs above that of CO2 emissions? “
ALMUTH SCHULT
The national goalkeeper asked: “Aren’t we talking more and more – and fortunately also in football – about sustainability and more climate neutrality? Is it exemplary to put the reduction of costs above that of CO2 emissions and that as a thoroughly wealthy sports association?” This is a question that “many clubs should also ask themselves, where decisions are often made in a similar way”. Football wants to be a role model. “It must also implement it,” Schult wrote.
Bumpy return flight – onward journey with replacement plane
The return flight of Iceland’s men’s national team had caused quite a stir because the charter plane that had taken off from Reykjavik with most of the team on board had to land at Edinburgh Airport due to a faulty backup power generator. The return journey was continued in a replacement aircraft.
The DFB actually still has a contract with Lufthansa until 2022, but the association is currently resorting to alternative offers. Last year, the German airline, which was in dire straits due to the Corona pandemic, had to be rescued with a billion-euro package from the German government. DFB Director Oliver Bierhoff had stressed at the end of July that a continuation of the partnership would be discussed, however.